The Nigerian Labour Congress has faulted the N185 billion subsidy palliative fund by the Federal Government.
Daily Report Nigeria reports that the government announced a N5 billion palliative for each state of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory in a bid to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal.
Announcing the move, the government said each state will receive five trucks of food items made up rice, beans amongst other edibles.
Reacting to the development, NLC President, Joe Ajero said the N5 billion per state palliative will not solve the problem of poverty.
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Ajaero noted that the fund won’t amount to a measly N1500 per person when shared among over 133 million Nigerians that are multi-dimensionally poor.
The NLC President said this while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, arguing that the total sum will not cause any impact on citizens.
Ajaero maintained that the palliative will not amount to a cup of rice per individual, saying that more Nigerians had gone beyond the borderline and had slid into a very high level of poverty.
He said;
“Let us assume that it is a palliative and not a loan, you will agree that it is difficult to feel the impact of such an amount at a time like this when the Bureau of Statistics has come up to say that over 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.
“You start to wonder about the impact of N185bn to 133 million people by their admittance, who are multi-dimensionally poor.
“In fact from the first increase in pump price of petrol and the last one, a lot of people moved from the borderline to a very high level of poverty. If you calculate and do an arithmetic on that, you will discover that it won’t amount to N1500 per person and you ask if that’s the impact that we want to achieve,” he said.
